The present invention relates to a device for forming a fluid spray. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved fluid spray-forming device or showerhead which is inexpensive to manufacture and highly energy efficient. The improved device produces a spray output which is very forceful and has a high fluid velocity compared to the spray normally obtained from conventional energy savings showerheads. The invention also includes a new type of pulsating showerhead.
There are three general types of showerheads presently available: standard showerheads, pulsating showerheads, and energy savings, aerating showerheads. The term showerhead as used herein designates any device which attaches to a fluid supply through an inlet tube and creates a spray by changing the fluid pattern to form discrete particles or droplets.
The standard showerhead has a flow path connecting the fluid inlet tube to a spray-forming disk, the flow path having substantially the same diameter as the fluid inlet tube. The disk has a plurality of hole or exit passages to produce a spray which may be further shaped by an output nozzle. The spray from the standard showerhead, assuming there is sufficient water pressure, is powerful. While this standard showerhead is inexpensive to construct, it is energy inefficient because it uses a large volume of water to form the shower.
The pulsating showerhead, such as that sold under the tradename "Water Pik", is a fairly recent innovation and has achieved considerable popularity. The pulsating showerheads employ a mechanical device between the input and the spray-forming disk to interrupt the fluid flow at periodic intervals and form the pulsation. The fluid pulse has a higher velocity than the standard showerhead velocity so, despite the fact that the horizontal component is not great, the pulsating showerheads use a lot of water. These pulsating showerheads are expensive to manufacture and they are prone to mechanical breakdown.
Energy saving, aerating showerheads, which first achieved popularity following the increase in oil costs in the 1970s, save energy by reducing the water flow. These showeheads have a flow path substantially smaller than the fluid inlet tube but use a conventional output disk. The highly turbulent water flow caused by the small flow path opening at the disk yields a highly aerated water-efficient shower. Some energy saving showerheads even have means to cut off or reduce the water flow so no water is wasted while soaping. The major difficulty with these conventional energy saving showerheads is that the spray is relatively weak.
Other spray-forming devices such as sprinklers or hose nozzles use similar means to form the spray. These devices are relatively energy and fluid inefficient.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a spray-forming device which is energy efficient while yielding better spray characteristics than currently available devices. Another object of the invention is to provide a relatively inexpensive, energy efficient showerhead which yields a forceful spray. A further object of the invention is to provide a relatively inexpensive pulsating showerhead which is not subject to mechanical breakdown. These and other objects and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description and from the drawing.